National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

By Arshya Gurbani

Feb 26th-March 4th is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2017. Whether you or someone you know is affected by an eating disorder or you just want to learn more about them, the National Eating Disorders Association has a lot of helpful toolkits to help jump start important conversations.

The role of the media in discussing body image, weight, and eating disorders is powerful. “Media stories about obesity and eating disorders often create images that bear little resemblance to the scientific, clinical, and even lived realities of these conditions” begins one 2014 book on the subject (citation below). Another researcher discusses the role of Facebook in increasing anxiety around weight or shape . This is not to say that media cannot have a positive impact or generate positive dialogue, but just to recognize that how we talk about eating disorders matters.

If nothing else, we can use this week as an opportunity to intentionally speak about body image and eating in a healthy way. One cool initiative here at UNC’s Campus is done in conjunction with our Campus Recreation facilities; group fitness instructors and coaches will incorporate the theme of NEDA throughout classes and training this week, through actions such as “Mirror-less Monday”, for which mirrors at the gym will be covered, encouraging participants to think about how they feel (as opposed to how they look).

At the end of the day, we all eat. ( Well, hopefully at the beginning of the day too…they still say breakfast is the most important meal!) It has to be incredibly difficult when a daily activity is a major cause of stress.

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